


Stars burn themselves out

by CheetahLeopard2



Series: Gifts and also what I'm doing instead of working on my others [48]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: ;), Angst, M/M, Oikawa Tooru's Knee Injury, space imagery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-03
Updated: 2018-04-03
Packaged: 2019-04-17 19:10:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 486
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14195802
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CheetahLeopard2/pseuds/CheetahLeopard2
Summary: Tooru doesn't know why he didn't listen to his doctor when he had the chance. Perhaps it was because the full gravity of the state his knee was in didn't fully sink in until now.





	Stars burn themselves out

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AlannaRose](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlannaRose/gifts).



> Thank Alanna for the fact that I didn't go on to have the psychological effects on Tooru and Hajime
> 
> Also, happy late Iwaoi day ;D

Tooru doesn't know why he didn't listen to his doctor when he had the chance. Perhaps it was because the full gravity of the state his knee was in didn't fully sink in until now.

Was, because now it's gone too far.

Too far gone, just like his heart. The reason he was out this late practicing in the first place.

All he has to do now is wait for the one he lost himself in to appear, his savior as always.

As always, except now he's a step too late.

 _Or,_ Tooru reflects with a bitter twist to his thoughts, _a serve too late_.

\---

Laughter permeates the air as Hajime approaches the gym, steps quick and deliberate. At 2 am, the only thing fueling his is his fury.

Hajime doesn't stop to- no, doesn't _allow_ himself- to think about how this tastes a little less like fury and a lot more like concern.

"DUMBASS WHAT'RE YOU LAUGHING FOR IT'S 2 IN THE FUCKING MOR-" Hajime's throat abruptly cuts off his words at the same time as the laughter stops. Tooru's eyes bore into Hajime's very soul from where he lays on the gym floor, cutting deep as the gaze seeks comfort.

 

His eyes are red. Hajime notes, his world hung in a fragile balance, hanging over the edge of a cliff with only the wind blowing him towards land.

Then his stare, as though pulled, lands on Tooru's knee.

His red, swollen, twitching, _broken_ knee.

Well, not broken. Broken, at this point, would be a blessing. Shattered, even. No. This is a knee which has been torn apart, revealing nothing but blood and broken dreams.

 

And the wind shifts.

Oikawa Tooru. Someone revered, a star student, star athlete, star conversationalist. A star shining so brightly it was inevitable that it burned itself up with it's own brilliance.

 _But why,_ Hajime can't help but think as he pinpoints the exact moment Tooru's world shatters and falls to ashes, _does the inevitable have to arrive so soon?_

Hajime doesn't realize he's crying until he meets Tooru's eyes again, and the bitter smile he finds there is tinged with an emotion Hajime hopes he will never have to identify.

\---

He can't remember clearly anymore, a time when his knee wasn't causing him anguish.

And at the same time, it's the thing that gave him hope. _It's not broken, so I can keep going_. Tooru had told himself.

He sees now, how foolish that was. Because the thing that gives him the most hope is incorrigibly going to be the thing that brings him the most pain, having had a glimpse of the ideal, only to have it ripped away.

If only it had been ripped away, if only that were how it happened, if only that were the truth. If only, if only.

'If only' won't change veracity.

Tooru did this to himself. And there's no going back.

**Author's Note:**

> PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE COMMENT


End file.
